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Book Review: The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

When a monstrous beast attacks in Eurona, desperate measures must be taken. The king sends a proclamation to the best and bravest hunters: whoever kills the creature will win the hand of his daughter Princess Aerity as a reward. The princess recognizes her duty but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger—she was meant to marry for love—until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. And while there’s no denying the fiery chemistry between them, Princess Aerity feels that Paxton’s mysteriousness is foreboding, maybe even dangerous.

Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He is determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast—but the princess continues to surprise him, and the secrets he’s buried begin to surface against his wishes.

I didn’t hate The Great Hunt but it unfortunately was just kind of meh for me.

I liked the premise. A vicious beast coming from nowhere and bringing a kingdom to it’s knees. A group of hunters from around the continent hunting it down to win the princess’s hand. The divide between magic and non-magic people threatening to cause an all out war. This is all right up my alley.

Where it fell down for me was the characters and their respective romances. There’s multiple love triangles going on which would normally annoy me. In this case though I think they could have worked due to the circumstances of the hunt and marriage to the princess being the prize for killing the beast. Except the couples just didn’t click for me.

The princess for example falls for a guy who treats her like trash for most the book, not a good start to a romance in my opinion. While the book does give a good reason as to why said guy is treating her this way it never gives an adequate reason as to why she in turn is attracted to him. She thinks he’s hot but that’s about it.

On the other hand there is another guy the princess grew up with and even had some romantic encounters with. Not only does he treat her with respect, he promises to stand with her and support her through anything. (A promise he proves to be true.) She toys with the idea of marrying him but ultimately decides not to. You know because there’s no passion. Ugh………

Yep, jerk guy who you barely know but has the mysterious hot thing going for him is obviously better than best friend guy who has never let you down. WINNER!

There’s more I could say about the other love triangles going on. Is it two more? Three more? Yeah there’s a lot of them and they are all just as terrible. But I think I’m just going to leave off here.

There is another book in this series I will probably get around to reading eventually since this one ends in a cliffhanger and I do want to know how it all ends. I am not in any hurry though.